


SEVENTEEN

by Chocolatos



Series: Minho and Gwiboon [2]
Category: SHINee, 소녀시대 | Girls' Generation | SNSD
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Originally Posted on LiveJournal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-09-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:35:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26253478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocolatos/pseuds/Chocolatos
Summary: Gwiboon only has one heart to lose.
Relationships: Choi Minho/Kim Gwiboon, Jung Sooyeon | Jessica/Kim Jonghyun (SHINee), Jung Sooyeon | Jessica/Kwon Yuri, Lee Jinki | Onew/Lee Taemin
Series: Minho and Gwiboon [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1901074
Kudos: 1





	SEVENTEEN

Gwiboon was eight when her family moved to Seoul. Her father got promoted to be the Chief Operating Officer in his merged transportation company. Her mother was more than happy to move because she could pursue back the modeling career she once had before she got married. Gwiboon didn’t seem to care because she was a happy child and a happy child was not worried about anything else, other than how to get rid of the smug on the face of her parents’ best friend’s son, Choi Minho. She didn’t like him beyond words, but she couldn’t use _hate_ because her parents taught her that _hate_ was a strong word to describe a human’s feelings toward another. Funny thing was, even though scrunched noses and snarled always took part in every meeting they had, both Minho and Gwiboon got along very well. They just wouldn’t admit that, even when being put under the threat of a gun.  
  
 _“Conceited Weirdo.”_  
  
 _“Pink Monster.”_  
  
 _“Sissy!”_  
  
 _“Daddy’s girl.”_  
  
 _“Stupid Choi Minho.”_  
  
 _“Ohoho, Gwiboon, why are you blushing?”_  
  
 _“Shut up!”_  
  
 _“Try me.”_  
  
  


  
At the age of twelve, Gwiboon wondered why his father often found sleeping on the couch instead of her parents’ bedroom. She tried to understand the excuses his father gave: that he didn’t want to wake her mother up when he had to come home late after work, or that he fell asleep while watching football matches and such. Gwiboon knew her father was not into soccer, but she brushed it off. The family dinner then became something fancy and when the three of them had the chance of having dinner together, she didn’t like the tension floated in the air.  
  
“I’m done, thank you for the meal,” pronounced often by her father, before disappearing into his study. Gwiboon would look at her mother, slightly questioning. Her mother would be very busy staring at her plate before standing up to gather dirty dishes and put them into the sink. Gwiboon saw how her mother’s shoulder slumped down a little and it looked like she was silently crying.  
  
“Mommy,” she cheered up and thought that maybe, just maybe, she could give a little help. “—today in school I—“  
  
“Honey—” her mother never, never cut her off when she was in the middle of telling stories, but now she did. Jessica looked at Gwiboon mindfully before saying, “do you mind going to your room now? Mommy will take your milk upstairs later. ”  
  
Gwiboon bit back her story that she was so itchy to tell about and forced herself to swallow. “Yes, Mommy. Sure.”  
  


  
The muffled groans and frustrated shouts became the daily routines of her parents. More than once Gwiboon saw either her mother or father stormed out of the room and left the house. She was anxious, for sure, but she believed that it was just another phase in a couple’s life and they would go through with it. Gwiboon often told herself that they had a strong bond as a family, even though sometimes her own belief betrayed her. Gwiboon just didn’t want to think or prepare herself for the worst. She was not and wouldn’t ever be ready for that.   
  
However, even though she was in denial and was ready to trade all the jacks and queens she had, she knew she had lost the battle. At the age of thirteen, she learned that love wasn’t forever, _'till death do us part_ , was probably just a momentary vow before being forgotten and trashed.  
  
“Gwiboon-ah, we’re really sorry,” Jessica rushed to her side but Gwiboon stepped back, a trance of betrayal was visible on her face.  
  
“Please, I don’t want to talk about this,” she choked back her tears and ran upstairs, locking herself in her room.   
  
Gwiboon couldn’t close her eyes even if she tried hard to do so. Her lips bruised from the biting, and she pretended to sleep when her father bid her goodbye. Jonghyun peppered his daughter with kissed and a short _‘Gwiboon, you know I love you, take care okay.’_ Her hands clenched inside the duvet and she ran to her window, crying silently while watching her father threw the last bag of his belongings into the car and started the engine. Gwiboon cried because she would not see him rubbing his eyes sleepily on the next morning and mornings after. She wouldn’t be able to watch her mother nagged at her father again in the kitchen because now, the perfect family she was always so proud of had broken. Gwiboon already knew it would happen, but she brushed it off every so often. She cried because she already missed her father.  
  
“Boonie.”

Gwiboon quickly wiped her tears and whipped her head to where the sound came. Jessica stood groggily by her door, looking at her with concern. Suddenly her mother looked so much older than her age, her hair was a complete mess.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?”  
  
 _She was the one who should ask, wasn’t she? Not the other way around._  
  
Gwiboon only nodded because words suddenly didn’t come easily. She offered a bitter smile as her mother cleared her throat and stood awkwardly. Gwiboon didn’t say anything nor ask Jessica about Jonghyun and what would happen. Sometimes words were better left unsaid.  
  
“Sleep early, okay, you have school tomorrow.”  
  
Gwiboon nodded again and then, “Mommy,” came out a little late just when her mother almost closed the door. Jessica looked at Gwiboon with a tired but loving smile. Hesitant, she asked, “may I sleep with you tonight?”  
  
Jessica opened her arms, and Gwiboon ran into her arms. They held onto each other that night, too scared they would wake up alone when the morning came.  
  
  
  
  
“You’ve got something… there…”  
  
“Huh?”  
  
The big-eyed boy smiled and gently brushed his thumb over Gwiboon’s mouth. He caught her off guard and she slightly leaned away. Minho only laughed while bringing his thumb to his own mouth and licked it. It was only a simple act, but Gwiboon couldn’t do anything to stop her face from getting red. The tingly feeling from the imaginary insects floating around her stomach didn’t help at all.  
  
“Gwiboon, are you okay?”  
  
“Ah? Ah… yeah,” Gwiboon flickered her view from staring into space and chewed on her sandwich, avoiding the contact.  
  
Minho shrugged, “anyway, are you free tomorrow?”  
  
“Sort of, why?”  
  
The boy grinned, “cool. Help me choose birthday presents for Hyuna. She wants another bag again,” he said, smiling. Gwiboon felt her heartbroken. “Why do girls need many bags, anyway?”  
  
“I don’t need many bags.”  
  
“You’re not a girl,” Minho poked her arm playfully. Gwiboon wasn’t sure if the smile reached her eyes or not, but she didn’t get the time to worry. Minho’s phone rang and he was busy answering the call before getting on his feet in a hurry and signaling his departure. Gwiboon wanted to remind him about their initial plan, but he was so fast, she didn’t have time to do so. She sighed and pulled the concert tickets out of her pocket. Minho had promised her to watch Nicole and her band’s performance together. She had reminded him every single day, yet he still forgot about that. Gwiboon wasn’t happy. It wasn’t the first time he ditched her for his girlfriends. Plural.  
  
“Best friend, whatever,” Gwiboon was rarely grunting, but when she did, she meant it. She grabbed her phone and called her other best friend.

“Taemin,” Gwiboon tried to sound cheerful when another friend of hers answered her call. “I got tickets for Nicole’s band, are you down?” she crossed her fingers, “okay, I’ll wait at Il Mundo.”   
  
Gwiboon was sixteen when she knew she fell for Choi Minho, her best friend, the same person who stole her first kiss when she was seven.  
  


  
“You look like have just swallowed my dirty socks,” Nicole batted her lashes innocently when Gwiboon and Taemin came to the backstage after the performance ended. “Did she, Tae?”  
  
“Haha, funny,” Gwiboon threw herself down onto the hard couch and grunted while Taemin had flown to where Jungmo was. The guitarist was tuning his guitar with Jonghun and Minhwan.  
  
“Taemin was loud,” Nicole commented after watching Gwiboon for a while. Being a good friend she was, Nicole knew Minho stood her up again and didn’t bring up the topic. “He couldn’t stop jumping and bouncing like a lucky rabbit.”  
  
“Yeah, he’s a pleasant companion” Gwiboon tagged along, careful not to slip her tongue out of one name. They were both watching Taemin tried to play guitar but failed miserably. Everybody knew the guitar just wasn’t for him. They didn’t know why the Taemin even bother to try it, but his laugh was enough to enlighten the gloomy mood. “I wish I could fall for Taemin instead.”  
  
Nicole snorted, “as if you can choose who you fall in love with.”  
  
“I officially choose Taemin,” Gwiboon announced rather chirpy. Both the girls’ eyes glued on the red-haired fifteen-year-old boy, the younger the fresher. Nicole reacted by opening the coke for a cheer.  
  
“Good luck, Kim Gwiboon.”  
  
They both giggled like it was the funniest thing they had laughed about. That was the last memory she had with Nicole before the girl abruptly moved back to America without telling her why. _‘I’m sorry, I was intending to tell you but it was so sudden,’_ was the reason Nicole gave her through Skype and Gwiboon tried to understand. Even though she slowly got sick with people leaving and breaking their promises. She gave up her social life after that, realizing that it was better not to get attached to people if it only meant to get hurt.

*********

What Gwiboon hates the most is waiting.

She doesn’t mind waiting if there is a prior notification beforehand, but this… this… not even a single message she gets from Choi Minho. That boy always has a wide smile plastered on his face every time he makes a mistake. Minho thinks his smile will be enough to gain forgiveness. Gwiboon looks at a small square box wrapped neatly with a pretty ribbon on top, before kicking innocent pebbles on the ground lightly just to express her rage. That stupid Choi Minho once again asked her to find a gift for his new girlfriend, as an apology for ditching that stupid girl for his football match. Something she has done for the past years. It’s not like Gwiboon enjoys doing it, but she has a soft spot for Minho’s eyes. It’s just hard to resist when Minho looks at her expectantly with those large doe eyes.  
  
“This is stupid, he is stupid,” Gwiboon hisses under her breath. She might have earned gifts a lot if she counts every time Minho has ditched her for something else.  
  
  


  
“Gwiboon-ah.” Minho with his brunette hair trudges his way through the park to greet the sulky Gwiboon. He is late for thirty minutes. His sports bag is hanging loosely on his arm. “Sorry, it was the traffic.”  
  
“Sorry will not cut it,” Gwiboon gathers her belonging and off of the bench, ignoring the boy who stares at her with a deep frown on his temples.  
  
“Oh, come on, I had something to do okay,” Minho reasons before marching behind her. Gwiboon stops and walks around him when he tries to block her, not even giving him a chance to speak. “Come on honey, don’t be mean.”  
  
That is enough to make Gwiboon stops, takes a deep breath, and prays for Minho’s life. “Choi Minho,” she really tries to stay calm. “Unlike you, I have other more important things to do than just screwing random girls or trying to get into every girls’ pants.”  
  
“You sound like a jealous girlfriend,” Minho retorts with a playful smirk on his face. “If I don’t know you, I’ll think you really are. Wait, Gwiboon!“ Minho fast paces beside the girl, still doesn’t get the clue yet, and continues blocking her way. “Besides, it’s not me who’s trying to get into anyone’s pants. It’s them. Don’t twist the fact.”  
  
“I beg your pardon?” Gwiboon stops and stares at Minho in disbelief. She knows Minho is very popular in school. Once he talks to girls, they like him, but that doesn’t mean he may take everyone for granted.  
  
Minho grins, a wide and innocent one. “Yeah?”  
  
“Can you stop being a conceited asshole?” Gwiboon lets out an exasperated sigh, making a round to walk away. “I can’t believe this, why did I even bother to wait?” She whispers to herself.  
  
“Because you love me.”  
  
Gwiboon almost throws her heavy bag straight to Minho’s face, but she grabs the gift and throws it at him. “You know what, fuck you!”  
  
“Language, Gwiboon! Hey, Gwiboon, come one. Gwiboon! Kim Gwiboon!”  
  
She doesn’t stop walking, even though the boy shouts his lung out.  
  
“Gwiboon, Gwi—“  
  
His voice slowly fades out. Gwiboon stops and looks past her shoulder. Minho always runs after her when she’s mad, but there is no sight of him now. She takes a deep breath. Maybe she could at least give him a chance to explain.

“Okay,” Gwiboon turns around, ready to be comforted but she rolls her eyes and shakes her head once she sees a girl approaches Minho. That stupid best friend of hers already forgets about her. “Why am I so stupid?” Gwiboon asks herself again. She needs a break.

Jessica is standing by Gwiboon’s door when she arrives home. She had a long day at the studio. Her arms crossed with fingers tapping on the right arm. Gwiboon doesn’t seem to acknowledge her mother's presence. “It’s Friday night,” Jessica says after some thought.  
  
“Yeah, tomorrow is Saturday and Sunday comes afterward,” Gwiboon picks up the line from a song she heard on YouTube while skimming through page 52 of American History.  
  
“Why don’t you go somewhere… you know, having fun or something?”  
  
“I’m having fun,” the pencil scratches dangerously on the white sheet.  
  
“Can you be a little more excited?” Jessica huffs seeing Gwiboon flips another page and resumes her work. Her daughter doesn’t seem affected at all. “You’re writing your papers again. No one work on their homework on Friday night.”  
  
Gwiboon stops writing because of the tip of her pencil breaks. Too much force. She closes her eyes momentarily before opening them again. “Mom, just… what do you want for me?”  
  
“What’s with the attitude, young girl? I don’t remember teaching you to be disrespectful towards the elder.”  
  
Gwiboon bites back her retort, “I’m sorry.”  
  
Jessica moves to stand behind her daughter, placing a kiss on the top of her head before resting her chin on it while her hands rub Gwiboon’s arms lovingly. “Mommy misses you, Honeybee.”  
  
Gwiboon wriggles a little, and Jessica straightens herself. “You’ve been very busy too, Mom. Work always comes first.”  
  
“I thought we agree not to bring this up again, Boonie.”  
  
Gwiboon rolls her eyes and reaches out for her sharpener. The bitter response makes her mother rubs her temple tiredly. 

“Okay,” Jessica takes the pencil from Gwiboon and whittles it for her when it breaks again. “Listen, I just want my daughter to go out for a while, having fun with some friends or such. You’ve been a good girl every day… or maybe you can ask Nicole—“  
  
“Nicole moved back to California last year.”  
  
“—or other friends.”  
  
“I don’t have other friends.”  
  
“—or maybe you can call Minho, I haven’t seen him around lately.”

Gwiboon takes her pencil back. Jessica stares at her with warm eyes when she looks up. To tell the truth, she misses her mother too, but the lady is too busy working her ass off as a model. Also, Minho is the last topic she wants to share right now. Gwiboon wraps her arms around Jessica’s waist and snuggles to her stomach. She whines in a way she did when she was a kid.  
  
“In case you don’t know, your daughter is a nerd. Nerds don’t go out on Friday nights.”  
  
That brings a frown on Jessica’s temple as she watches her girl carefully, curling her fingers into Gwiboon’s hair. Her daughter has always been beautiful and lively. She used to have lots of friends and sometimes brought them home, even though it becomes less and less frequent these days. But, a nerd? It must be one of her jokes, right? Gwiboon seems to notice her mother’s thoughts as she stands up to get her jacket from her closet.  
  
“I don’t have to put on my glasses and carry all my books around to be a nerd,” Gwiboon kisses her mother’s cheek. “I’ll be back before ten. I just need to breathe.”  
  
Jessica catches her wrist before she goes, brushing her bangs out of her eyelashes, “I love you, okay.”  
  
“Me too.”  
  
 _But our loves aren’t enough for Daddy to stay_.  
  
  
  
  
“It’s Friday night.”  
  
Gwiboon catches Taemin’s eyes on her through the mirror and she stops dancing. “Why people keep telling me it’s Friday night? It’s not like I’m having amnesia. I know it’s Friday.”  
  
Taemin shrugs and throws a bottle of cold water to her. “I saw Minho Hyung downtown. Did you guys fight? Friday night is usually the two of you hang around each other without care to the world.”  
  
Sometimes Gwiboon hates the fact that she has befriended Taemin for years and that boy is smart. “We hang around too much. I guess we just need our spaces now. Besides, I don’t think his new girlfriend likes me.”  
  
“Then that girl can just screw herself,” Taemin jokes. His body moves lightly, following the music blasted from the speakers in the studio. Being in a dance team gives them the privilege to use the room anytime they want. “In your case, need space means ignoring each other, right?”  
  
Gwiboon takes her turn to shrug as she moves closer to Taemin and sways her hips. The Latin rhythm of Bust Your Window heats the floor and Gwiboon wraps her hands around Taemin’s shoulder, smiling seductively, and Taemin chuckles. “Would you like to dance with me, Taemin?”  
  
“I’ll pray Minho Hyung won’t kill me,” and he grabs Gwiboon’s waist tightly. Her breath hitched.  
  
“If only you’re not into men, Taemin,” she whispers as he spins her around and gets her back pressed against his chest. Gwiboon decides she loves the way the younger chuckles.  
  
Taemin spins her again so they face each other, their noses slightly brushing against each other. He rests his temples on hers, “I love you too, Noona.”  
  
Gwiboon tucks her chin on Taemin’s shoulder as the boy tightens his embrace. “Just a second,” she whispers faintly in his ear.  
  
  
  


Lee Jinki comes at 9.30 p. m and the boys drive her home at 9.50. If Taemin is all bouncy and noisy around his friends, he transforms into a different person when Jinki is around, all shy and flushed cheeks.  
  
“You’re completely in love, just tell him already,” she teases when Taemin walks her to the door. Jinki is waiting inside his car. Taemin shakes his head and touches her hand, “just go, I can’t let him waiting.”  
  
“Look at you, horny rabbits.”  
  
“Go!”  
  
Another five minutes of teasing the boy before Gwiboon finally goes inside her house, watching the car disappear into the dark behind the curtain. “Lucky boys,” she murmurs before the sound of something breaking startles her. Gwiboon freezes for a moment.  
  
“Mommy?” She calls out and frowns when finding the living room clad in darkness. Gwiboon turns the light on and calls her mother once again when getting no response. “Mommy?”

The thought of something bad might happen to her mother scares her. She has become paranoid over the smallest sound after her parents’ separation. Living in a spacious house without a man she has known for life, gives her a slightly uncomfortable feeling. Gwiboon walks to the kitchen,

“Mom— _OH MY GOD_ ,” she claps a hand to her mouth to suppress the scream out of her lung. Gwiboon feels like it has sucked her life out of her, witnessing the scene before her eyes. Her mother is sitting on the counter with her legs widely spread. Her eyes closed and lips slightly part. The weight of her body propped onto one of her hands that grips tightly on the edge of the counter, while her free hand curls into light brown locks of her partner, whose face buried deep under her. What shocks Gwiboon the most is that the other person is a woman.  
  
Gwiboon feels her legs wobbled, and she walks backward, knocking a vase on the little round table near the refrigerator down.  
  
Jessica’s eyes snapped open and her breath caught in her throat as she watches her daughter in horror. Her partner stands up awkwardly and Jessica hops down onto the floor, pulling her skirt down and reaching out for Gwiboon. “Boonie... Kim Gwiboon, I can explain this.”  
  
“Don’t touch me,” Gwiboon swats her mother’s hand away, tears welling in her eyes.  
  
“Baby, please,” Jessica desperately shifts closer. Her damped bangs felt sticky on her temple. Gwiboon shakes her head, walking away with a look of disgust in her eyes.  
  
“Don’t you dare.”  
  
“Boonie—“  
  
“—thank you for making me not only a nerd but also a daughter of... ” she stops midway, eyes on the other woman behind her mother. “You’re sick.”  
  
“Gwiboon!”  
  
“I can’t believe you left Daddy for this disgusting bitch!”  
  
Deadly silence engulfed the three of them after Jessica’s hand dramatically meets Gwiboon’s cheek. The girl’s eyes widen and the light brown-haired woman, who’s been silent during the mother-daughter fiasco, alternates her eyes between Jessica and Gwiboon. Hesitantly, she gently taps Jessica’s shoulder.  
  
“Sica?”  
  
That brings the mother back into reality as she gasps, “Boonie…”  
  
Gwiboon wipes her tears, speaking in a barely audible voice. “I’m staying with Daddy,” before she goes, almost running. The stinging pain on her left cheek only adds the salt onto her already bruised heart.  
  
“Kim Gwiboon—“ A hand stopped Jessica from running after her daughter, “but Yuri… she will…”  
  
“Let her, she needs time.”  
  
Jessica looks at the exit for a while, sighing before burying herself into the slightly younger woman. “What should I do?”  
  
  
  
  
Minho drums his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel, waiting for the light to turn green. He jumped into his car and drove at a speed of light all the way from downtown in a moment he heard Gwiboon crying on the line. “Oh, come on.”   
  
A sigh of relief let out when the light changes and Minho speeds up to the only place he has in mind. Gwiboon is always found there whenever she’s sad.  
  
Minho has proven he’s a good friend when a familiar tiny figure sits on the bench outside the ring. Her shoulders sagged forward, bringing her knees up to the chest.  
  
“You should at least wear your jacket,” says Minho as he puts his jacket around Gwiboon. He takes a seat beside her and carefully side-eyed the girl. He watches Gwiboon straightens herself and slips into his jacket properly.  
  
“What for? You always bring one for me,” she smiles tiredly and rests her head on his shoulder. Minho looks hesitant for a bit but swoops her closer by the waist, rubbing her arm for the warmth.  
  
“Feel better?” He asks gently. Just because Gwiboon comes out strong, doesn’t mean there’s nothing wrong, he knows that. “Your mom called, asking if you’re with me, and I said yes. What’s wrong?”  
  
Gwiboon doesn’t answer, but she cries instead, soaking Minho’s tee with her tears. Minho soothes her back tenderly and tucks her head under his chin.  
  
“Hey, what happened? I thought someone robbed you or something, you scared me out.”  
  
“Did I?”  
  
“Uhuh.” Light chuckles in between the choked sob and strokes in the back. “Something bothers you?”  
  
Even though they’re still seventeen, but Minho is a man. His arms are long and when he hugs her, Gwiboon feels protected. She sniffs and pulls away, staring at her lap, playing with her fingers. “I just miss Daddy.”  
  
“—and do you miss me too?”  
  
Gwiboon’s eyes narrowed before she snickers. “I can’t believe this, you make me look stupid.” She rubs her temple, “calling you out of the blue, crying just because I miss my Dad.”  
  
He reacts by caressing her cheek, “it’s okay, people do stupid decisions every day.”  
  
“Tell me.”  
  
“Like coming late that day without telling you beforehand,” Minho jokes, causing Gwiboon to groan. However, Minho doesn’t let it go. “Come on Gwiboon, we haven’t talked at all for two weeks. That’s the longest in history.”  
  
“And how is that my fault?”  
  
“Look, I’m sorry.” Minho laces their fingers and brings them to his lap. Gwiboon freezes because of the sudden intimacy. “Please?”  
  
Untying their hold, she finally gives up. “Okay. All right, I get it.”  
  
Gwiboon hopes for her wings to fly her away. There’s nothing that hurts more than having your love unknown.

*********

Gwiboon has fallen asleep by the time they reach her father’s condo somewhere in the north part of Seoul. It’s already past midnight but Jonghyun doesn’t ask Minho. It’s probably because he already got a phone call from his ex-wife.

“Thank you, Minho,” he says as Minho carefully lays Gwiboon down on the bed. “I’ll tell her to call you once she wakes up.”  
  
“It’s okay Mr. Kim,” the boy politely bows and leaves. Gwiboon will tell him the case when she’s ready, right?  
  
“Drive safely,” Jonghyun waves at Minho before shutting the door and looks over his shoulder. “You can go out now, he’s gone.”  
  
Gwiboon groggily comes out of her hiding, shifting her weight from one foot to another. The blanket pooled around her ankles. “You knew about Mom, didn’t you?”  
  
“Go back to sleep, we’ll talk about this tomorrow.”  
  
Gwiboon shakes her head, she needs to know the truth. “Answer me, Daddy. Did you already know this?”  
  
Jonghyun rubs the back of his neck tiredly, getting fatigued after a long meeting at the office, “sort of.”  
  
“Tell me about it?” she isn’t sure why her father seems unbothered about her mother’s issue at all. Is it because they aren’t together anymore?  
  
Jonghyun contemplates for a while, still thinking his ex-wife may tell their daughter instead of him. It’s a sensitive case. “You sure?” he earns a nod from her and with a sigh he leads Gwiboon to sit on the couch, her head on his lap. “Well, her name is Yuri and your mother has always been in love with her.”  
  
“Has?”  
  
“Had been, has been, and will ever be.”  
  
Gwiboon holds her breath.  
  
“Are you okay?” Jonghyun’s fatherly side kicks in and his daughter nods hesitantly. “I knew that long before, but I ignored that, thinking she would get over it once we got married. But the dull expression she tried to hide whenever there were only the two of us was painful. She was good, I know she tried, but we both knew it didn’t work out.”  
  
“Did you regret that, Daddy?”  
  
Jonghyun combs her long brown hair softly, “no, not even a bit. We had thirteen wonderful years and we have you. I couldn’t be luckier than that.”  
  
“Hmm.”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Gwiboon sits up and leans on her father’s side, “isn’t that selfish? I mean she only thinks about herself, her own happiness, but what about you? Me? Us? She shouldn’t be like this.”  
  
Jonghyun knows it has to be the four of them sitting together and hear each other’s sides of the story. He doesn’t want to give Gwiboon a wrong impression about her mother. “You know, sometimes it’s okay to be selfish.”  
  
“I don’t understand.”  
  
“You’ll be, someday,” he smiles softly, tugs her to lay her head back into his lap.  
  
“Can I move in with you?” Gwiboon looks up to find her father’s eyes. She doesn’t expect him to shake his head and say,  
  
“No.” Jonghyun sounds firm, she knows it’s a lie.  
  
“Why? Don’t you want to be with me?”  
  
“I do, but you know how worried your mother will be not being able to live with you, don’t you?”  
  
They both chuckle before Gwiboon whines and pouts, “not anymore. She’s always busy, I don’t remember the last time she sends me to sleep.”  
  
“How old are you?” Jonghyun teases, earning himself a light punch on the thighs. “Hey, I promise, I’ll make it up to you later okay.”  
  
“Hmm…”  
  
“Say _yes, Daddy._ ”  
  
 _“Yes, Daddy,”_ Gwiboon chirps obediently. She looks at him, a frown gets deeper on her temple, “don’t you feel lonely? I mean, if mom has Yuri-ssi, don’t you need someone to take care of you?”  
  
“I already have you.”  
  
Gwiboon rolls her eyes, mumbling, “cheesy daddy,” and giggles. The weight on her shoulder loosened a bit. “I mean seriously, it’s been five years and I don’t think you have introduced me to someone. Not even one, and that’s pathetic—“  
  
“Language, Gwiboon.”  
  
“—you’re not bad, you know. Still kind of hot,” her eyes travel down and up, wolf-whistling. Jonghyun leans in closer, putting a playful smirk on his face.  
  
“You’re hitting on me now?”  
  
“Does it work?”  
  
Jonghyun laughs, embracing her tightly. “I’ll let you know when I find one, promise.”  
  
  
  
  
Gwiboon stays in her father’s condo for more than a week, ignoring all the desperate phone calls from her mother. By the end of the thirteenth day, Jonghyun drags her to his car and drives her home to fix the problem.  
  
Gwiboon sulks on her seat, crossing her arms. “You know it’s against the law to force someone to do something she doesn’t want to, right?” Jonghyun doesn’t show the slightest movement as a response, and Gwiboon puts her head down in frustration. She groans, “okay, okay. I’ll go. Happy?”  
  
The father grins. He faces Gwiboon once they stop in front of the house. “I’ll come over and bring your things tonight.”  
  
“But Daddy…”  
  
“End of discussion. Now get out, I have a meeting in fifteen minutes. Go talk to your mother.”  
  
“You’re so rude,” she pushes the door open.  
  
“Love you too, Boonie,” and kisses her cheek before she out of the car. “Tell Jessica I love her.”  
  
“Then why aren’t you guys getting re-married?”  
  
“Hilarious.”  
  
  


  
Jessica is sitting on the swing with her legs pulled up to the chest, faint sobs heard as she traces a picture of Gwiboon with her fingers. She puts on Gwiboon’s oversized pink sweater outside her tank top and lets her hair falls into a loose mess around her shoulder. Yuri sits beside her, patting her back tenderly, and peppers one or two kisses on her head once in a while. Gwiboon closes her eyes for a moment, uncomfortable nausea in the pit of her stomach seeing those two women count onto each other.  
  
Gwiboon drifts closer, clearing her throat. “Mommy…”  
  
Jessica looks like she's ready to faint hearing her beloved daughter’s voice again and she practically throws herself into Gwiboon, embracing the girl a little too tight. Gwiboon thinks her bone crashed. “I’m sorry, Gwiboon. I’m sorry. I, Oh my God, I can’t even…”  
  
“It’s okay, Mommy,” Gwiboon struggles to speak in between the kisses Jessica has generously given her. “You’re wetting my face. Mommy, stop it,” she giggles and her mother rests their temples against each other.  
  
“Don’t do that again to me, Boonie, please don’t.”  
  
Gwiboon tucks her chin on her mother’s shoulder as the older still doesn’t feel to let her daughter go. The sight of Yuri composedly yet awkwardly standing just some feet away from them greets her. Gwiboon still doesn’t know how to accept the situation or welcome the other woman into their life. However, Gwiboon remembers what her father had told her. It’s been on loop in her head.  
  
The high school girl drops her gaze when Yuri smiles at her. But she’s a good girl. Her mother never once taught her to be rude towards the elder. So Gwiboon raises her head back and holds her eyes on Yuri for a brief second. The edge of Yuri’s lips twitched upward into a smile and Gwiboon thinks that’s enough, at least for now.  
  
  
  
  
Life has been pretty well lately. Minho still ditches her for his girlfriends and makes it up o to her the next day. She gets used to it long before, so finding Minho climbs up to her window every night just to bid her good night becomes a little happiness in her unstable life.  
  
“You gotta stop following me around,” Gwiboon says with a smile on her face. Minho leans his body closer towards her and gets his chest pressed into the windowsill, smirking.  
  
“If I have to do that, it has to be for something important. If not, then why bother?”  
  
Gwiboon rolls her eyes. Years of breathing the same air with Minho has taught her not to have a second thought about his words. He plays a lot, and she has only one heart to lose.  
  
“Ask me, Gwiboon,” he says out of the blue, still standing on the ladder outside her window while Gwiboon lies down on her bed. “What’s important to me.”  
  
“No,” she barely looks up from her book, humming along with the song from the stereo.  
  
“Ask me.”  
  
“Don’t want to.”  
  
Gwiboon doesn’t have to look up to know Minho has climbed down the ladder, disappointed.  
  
  
  
  
Yuri moves into their house and the lovers try to keep themselves from stick around each other too much for Gwiboon. She finds out that Yuri is a bag designer, and she’s actually an amiable woman, but accepting is another thing. Gwiboon still keeps her distance, but she promises her mother she will try.  
  
“We’re moving to America.”  
  
Gwiboon stops stuffing cereal into her mouth once the words fall. She stares at her mother, arching her brow and search for a hint of a joke in Jessica’s face. “Well, I can stay with Daddy.”  
  
“We want you to come with us, Boonie.”  
  
An enormous lump on the back of her throat makes her hard to swallow and Gwiboon’s spoon falls down onto the marble with a soft clanking sound. “I beg your pardon?”  
  
Yuri puts her mug down and carefully places her hand onto Gwiboon’s. Her intention is good, but the sudden contact makes the girl accidentally yanks her hand back. Yuri looks taken aback, but she keeps her expression well.   
  
“I-I’m sorry,” murmurs her apologetically. “Wh-when are you planning to move?”  
  
The lovers exchange their gaze and Yuri takes it upon her to explain, “two weeks from now.” Gwiboon’s head whipped in the designer’s direction. “We know it’s too fast for you but—“  
  
“Two weeks?” Gwiboon wide-eyed.  
  
“Honey,” Jessica joins, “we’re sorry but you know the condition, right? We are still not that welcomed here, and we can’t get married here and—“  
  
“But in two weeks?” Gwiboon abruptly standing up, “thank you for ruining my life again, Mom.”  
  
“Gwiboon—“  
  
  
  
  
Gwiboon makes another round of drifting around the ring before sliding to the right side and spinning like a ballerina, twice. Her arms outstretched and she pretends that she’s a bird, flying away. She’ll make a good skater, Gwiboon mused as she makes another drifting movement. She’s been skating for two hours straight and her legs slowly scream for some rest. Gwiboon makes her attempt to just go skating for another hour or two when a loud bang heard from the main entrance. She stands there, in the middle of the arena, eyes directed to where the sound comes, holding her breath and waiting.  
  
“Maybe I’m just assuming thing,” she mumbles when there’s nothing but light that comes into sight  
  
Gwiboon is quickly engrossed in her figure skating world to notice someone has carefully slid towards her.   
  
“Did something happen again?”  
  
Gwiboon hisses over her shoulder because that scares her out, “no,” she retaliates, “and you are creepy.”  
  
Minho chuckles, wandering around her. “Don’t fake it, you look like an idiot.”  
  
“Thank you,” she slides backward, “why are you here?”  
  
Minho glides slowly toward her, “won’t tell you if you don’t tell yours.”  
  
“And that’s stupid,” she jokes around.  
  
Minho shrugs, “then tell me cause I ain’t that stupid.”  
  
“Now that’s stupid.”  
  
Gwiboon screams when Minho speeds up and reaches out to catch her. She dodges his hand and turns around, speeding up to the other side of the ring. It doesn’t take time for the two to be drawn back into the memories of their childhood.  
  


  
“I broke up,” Minho pants out of his breath when they sit on the bench. Gwiboon tilts her head to his side, trying to catch some air.  
  
“With Suzy or Nana?”  
  
Minho shakes his head, “Jiyoung.”  
  
Gwiboon wipes her sweat dripping on her neck and looks up when she catches Minho stares at her with those gigantic eyes. “Why?”  
  
“I kind of like someone else,” he says with a warm smile on his face. His eyes are on her and Gwiboon’s heart skips a beat.  
  
 _Maybe, just maybe, he’s talking about her, she thinks._  
  
“Do you want to go home now?”  
  
“No,” Gwiboon challenges and gets on her feet, “up to another round?”  
  
“Do you like it that much?”  
  
“Oh, not really,” she walks backward, beckoning Minho to follow her with her finger, “it just puts off coming home a little longer.”  
  
“or being with me a little longer,” he adds firmly, skating around her.  
  
She drifts closer, “or being with _me_ a little longer?”  
  
  
  
  
Days fly by too fast when she wishes for it to slow down, and Gwiboon doesn’t notice it’s almost the time for her to decide whether or not to stay. Most of their belongings are already shipped except for hers because she still doesn’t know yet. Thankfully, her father had talked to her mother, and it’s all on Gwiboon now. She slowly gets tired of playing hide and seek with her mother because she can’t look at her pleading eyes. Besides, there’s a certain someone making her unsure about this whole moving out plan. Even more when they seem to gain back the time they had once lost.  
  
Skating slowly over the ice on another Friday night, 2 days before the departure, Gwiboon can’t keep her eyes away from the gate. Minho had called before, talking in a hurry and unclear tone, telling her to meet him in the ring. He sounded nervous and now it’s Gwiboon's turn to shake. She still hasn’t told Minho yet about the whole situation and if… if she really has to go, she wants to let Minho knows about her feeling. It’s tiring to love alone, and she doesn’t know for how long she can hold it.  
  
“Gwiboon.”  
  
She sees Minho waves at her from outside the ring. He looks unusually energized and Gwiboon slides closer because Minho doesn’t have his skating shoes on. “Minho, I…”  
  
“I love you.”  
  
Gwiboon freezes on her track, all wide-eyed and shock. She isn’t sure what she has just heard, “what?”  
  
“I love you,” Minho shyly puts his head down for a bit and nervously sets his eyes back onto her again, scratching the back of his neck. “Shit, you know I’ve never said this to anyone, right? But I-I really love you.”  
  
Gwiboon feels like flying to the seventh heaven. She doesn’t know whether to cry or laugh, because no one, no one knows how she loves him more than anything in the universe. “I love you too.”  
  
Minho’s smile grows wide as he takes her hand and intertwines their fingers, “she’ll say the same thing, won’t she?”  
  
Gwiboon feels like being slammed back deep into the core of the world. “She?”  
  
“Gwiboon, I met someone,” Gwiboon sees how those eyes sparkling just like on the first Christmas night they had spent together years ago. She notices how the smile she always longs to see reaches his big eyes. Gwiboon blinks and bites her lips hard she feels metal on her tongue. “She’s wonderful. I think I’m in love… and, shit, I don’t even have the courage to tell her this.”  
  
“Who?”  
  
“Eunseo Noona.”  
  
 _Don’t smile,_ Gwiboon wants to say, but she gets tongue-tied. _Don’t you see I’m in pain now?_  
  
Her eyes moist, but Minho doesn’t stop talking. He shifts here and there, and Gwiboon should have known this. Minho always has a thing for older girls and she forgets how Minho will turn shy and composed whenever their Math tutor is around. Gwiboon doesn’t notice when Minho tugs her wrist and opens his arms.  
  
“Come here.” Minho envelopes her into a hug.

Gwiboon tries hard and prays for her tears not to fall. No, not now.

“Shall I go right now and tell her? I don’t know if I can do this,” Minho murmurs into her shoulder, “should I?”  
  
Minho pulls away first and Gwiboon smiles widely, as wide as she could with the unbearable pain in her heart. “Yeah, you should.” it’s Oscar-worthy acting for lying. “Go, tell her.”  
  
“Gwiboon, you’ll be happy for me, right?”  
  
Minho doesn’t even wait for her to answer because he is just too excited to tell the love of his life how he loves her.  
  
“Yeah, sure,” Gwiboon whispers to no one.  
  
Why is she always the one waiting?  
  
  


“Mommy,” Gwiboon bursts out once her call answered. “Take me with you, please Mommy, take me away from here.”  
  
On the backseat of the bus, with tears spilling down like a river on her cheek, Gwiboon is seventeen when she learns that not every princess gets to have the prince of her dream.


End file.
